麻豆社

The entire police leadership of one city in New York state has resigned as more details emerge of the manner of the death of an African American man who was hooded and detained by officers earlier this year.

Daniel Prude was said to be suffering from acute mental health problems when police were called in March and officers found him running naked in the street. But after being held down for more than two minutes he reportedly stopped breathing. He died a week later in hospital after being taken off life support.

Footage has only recently surfaced and sparked fresh protests - so what's the thinking behind the mass resignation?

Joseph Giacalone is a professor of criminal justice - who also used to be a detective in New York for more than 20 years. He says political pressure means it's a 'no win situation' for police chiefs.

"I have never met a cop that said 'oh I'm glad we're going on mental health calls'. Believe me, these are the last things that cops want to go on because we understand that these things can go what we refer to as sideways, which means go bad. And cops don't want to deal with that."

(Photo: Rochester Police Chief, La'Ron Singletary. Credit: Reuters)

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